Hi cortisol levels will contribute to weight gain and to your difficulty in losing weight.

Effective stress management can help reduce your cortisol levels.

Lower cortisol levels will help you lose weight… and improve your health.

To learn more about the dynamics of stress and fat, read this insightful blog post – How to Prevent Weight Gain Due to Stress and Anxiety. The author addresses 7 steps to beat stress. But she does not, however, address the spiritual dimension of stress management.

So, please see below for some helpful resources on the spiritual dimension to better manage your stress… and perhaps help you with your weight management challenges. FULL POST

You might say "I can eat anything. The Christian faith, with my freedom from the laws through my relationship with Christ, permits me to eat any food." But all foods, and an overconsumption of foods, may not be good for you.

You say, “I am allowed to do anything”—but not everything is good for you. And even though “I am allowed to do anything,” I must not become a slave to anything. You say, “Food was made for the stomach, and the stomach for food.” (This is true, though someday God will do away with both of them.) But you can’t say that our bodies were made for sexual immorality. They were made for the Lord, and the Lord cares about our bodies. 1 Corinthians 6:12-13

But, as the same scripture above tells us, our bodies were also meant for the Lord. Further in this sixth chapter of Corinthians, Paul tells us...

"Don’t you realize that your bodies are actually parts of Christ?" (Verse 15) and "Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 FULL POST

During what is often a busy week, I'd like to encourage you to slow down and take a few minutes to reflect upon the significance of the birth of Christ and to be reminded why Jesus came into the world.

This list is from a whole-person health perspective - spiritual, emotional, relational, mental and physical .health

When I visited the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte a few months ago, Laura Hillenbrand’s book - Unbroken, caught my attention as it was propped up on one of their bookshelves. It recounts the life of Louis Zamperini. I bought it and read it within a week.

As you might know, the movie by the same title releases in theaters on Christmas day.

Unbroken, the book, tells about Zamperini’s struggle to live. First, at sea – after his plane was downed during World War II – and then of his survival after being in several Japanese prison camps.

The book is a testament to the resilience of Zamperini’s mind, body and spirit. It’s also a book about the toll that severe chronic stress and a broken life can have on one’s behavior and overall health.

In the book, Hillenbrand describes, with painstaking detail, aspects of Zamperini’s lengthy time surviving at sea. As well, she writes about the extreme conditions and challenges that Zamperini dealt with in prison camps. The description of the brutality of some of the prison guards was painful to read.

From a mind, body, spirit perspective Hillenbrand writes about the postwar lives of the Pacific POWs. She captured the insidious nature of the emotional injuries that they received. She writes that, 40 years after the war, up to 85% of the POWs were experiencing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Hillenbrand sites about how Zamperini personally coped with the stress of war. He turned to drinking alcohol. He became an alcoholic. His relationship with alcohol almost wrecked his marriage.

Zamperini once shared the following with an interviewer: "The postwar adjustment was really a challenge for me.... I began to take advantage of these parties and I began to overdrink.... pretty soon I found myself fading away, to the point where I realized that I was in serious need of help."

When a person begins an exercise program to improve their cardiovascular or aerobic fitness level, several things are going on physiologically in the body. The cardiovascular system – the oxygen transport system – has to get used to carrying oxygen in the blood through the blood vessels and deliver it as fuel for the muscles. Once the blood and oxygen arrives at the cellular level, the membranes of the cells must become ‘trained’ to allow the oxygen in so it can be used by the muscles. The more a person exercises, the more efficient this oxygen transport system becomes. As these pathways are used more and more, the person’s cardiovascular fitness will improve.

In a similar way, as we exercise aspects of our faith, we improve our level of spiritual fitness. I’ll give you one example.

Our beliefs shape our attitudes, which shape our thinking patterns, which shape our behaviors. As we read the Bible our beliefs begin to align with the truths we read. If we’re serious about growing in our faith, we’ll be intentional about meditating on these biblical truths. Our repeated thoughts will grow our neural pathways. These repeated thoughts become our attitudes which will permeate our mind and our emotions…. and end up shaping our will and its corresponding choices. This will determine our behaviors. FULL POST

Here’s a listing of some of the material things I own which most contribute to my spirit, mind, and body health.

1. My Bible. It helps me understand who God is and how he wants me to live. The spiritual health I achieve through my relationship with God is my foundation for my relational, emotional, mental and physical health.

2. My Bible Study Tools. The daily devotionals I read direct me to the Bible. My commentary helps me interpret what I read in the Bible. The concordance gives me an appreciation for the original Greek and Hebrew words that have been translated into today’s English language.

3. My Running Shoes. I’ve been running since I was in high school… almost 50 years. Running has been my primary method of staying in shape and helps me manage my weight and stress. My shoes are an essential part of this activity. Read more at this blog post – Running Shoes and The Bible – My Fitness Equipment) FULL POST

“For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Romans 5:10

God sent his Son, Jesus, to die so that our sins could be forgiven and we could live life in heaven for all eternity. Because of Jesus’ death, we can also have a direct relationship with God, the Father. This reconciliation and relationship is only possible by the blood that Jesus shed on the Cross for you and for me.

Entering into a relationship with God and receiving eternal life is a one time occurrence – a point in time. Being rescued from sin and living an abundant life – John 10:10 – is an ongoing process.

In the verse above, saved is from the Greek word sozo. Paul writes ‘how much more will we be saved.’ This implies a measure of ‘salvation’, degrees of ‘salvation’. We know by scripture that once we accept Jesus into our heart that we are assured of eternal life. John 3:16 That is one aspect of salvation. The word sozo also means to heal, make well, restore to health. FULL POST

Our health-related behaviors can easily become influenced by the ways of the world – the ways of the unbeliever. We can also be influenced, in a negative way, by other Christians.

Social norms and the practices of those around us can be so influential that our ways and habits can end up being indistinguishable from those who are not followers of Jesus.

But, as Christians, we are called to be holy – set apart from the unbeliever, in all our ways. “For it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”" 1 Peter 1:16

This applies to what we eat and how we care – or don’t care – for our bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit, the Living God. I confess that this applies to my life too.

Let’s look at 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 and 2 Corinthians 7:1

“Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: FULL POST

Yesterday I wrote that here in Charlotte we received about 8 inches of snow and one inch of ice. Well, the wet snow combined with the ice was pretty darn heavy. Mid-morning I glanced out the kitchen window to see that our 10′ x 10′ gazebo, or canopy, had become crushed under the weight of the snow and ice that had accumulated on it over the previous 12 hours. I imagine that the age of the gazebo and its steel frame – 7 years – contributed to the gazebo buckling under the heavy weight of the snow and ice.

The guilt and shame of our sinful behaviors can do the same to us. It can crush us… if we allow it.

After Adam and Eve sinned, by eating from the tree in the center of the Garden of Eden, they both hid from God and covered themselves because of the shame and guilt they felt. Genesis 3 tells us this story. FULL POST

We don’t often get snow in Charlotte, N.C.. When we do, it’s typically just a dusting that disappears the next day. That’s not the case with the weather system that is coming thorough the Carolinas with the current storm.

As I write this post, we’ve had about six inches and it’s still coming down. This is more than a dusting. Most everything is covered in white. As I was eating my breakfast this morning and watching the snow gently fall, I was reminded of the lyrics of the song based on the scripture that tells us that our sin has been washed away by the blood of Jesus.

As the song – Nothing But the Blood – goes, ‘Oh! precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. What can wash away our sins?… nothing but the blood of Jesus.’

“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” Isaiah 1:18 FULL POST